Glasgow Human Rights Network

Monday 13th March, 3.00 - 4.30pm

Room 706, Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow

• Speaker: Sharmila Thapa
• Chair: Vikki Turbine

On 21 January this year, over five million women worldwide reportedly came together to march in solidarity for the diverse – and often contested – issue of ‘women’s rights’. Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency inspired many to join sister marches across the world, often addressing cross-cutting issues concerning different marginalised groups like POC, LGBTQ, immigrants, and Muslims to name a few. But how does global sisterhood and feminist solidarity look like in ‘normal’ times beyond such marches or global movements like the One-Billion-Rising campaign? What does it mean for women - particularly in the developing context in what is now the global South - to organise around their rights under and beyond the shadows of transnational solidarities? What does it take to build a movement from the grassroots, to form a basis upon which global feminist solidarity and sisterhood is possible? What exactly are we standing in solidarity for? And how does this solidarity manifest ‘on the ground’ for activists?  

In this talk, we bring together Sharmila Thapa – founder and president of Samida Women’s Development Forum (SWDF) and a recipient of multiple awards for her work on the rights of single mothers and survivors of domestic violence – in conversation with Dr. Vikki Turbine to talk about some of these questions. Since Nepal ratified CEDAW in 1991, it has seen increasing political as well as civil society mobilisation around the rights of women, particularly facilitated by programmes funded by various UN and international agencies/governments. Nepal has also been witness to mass participation of women in a 10 year-long Maoist insurgency (1996-2006); the same guerrilla women’s election to a constituent assembly (2008); the election of the first female President, Speaker of Parliament and Supreme Court judge (all in 2015); and the constitutional guarantee of rights to non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (2015). However, the country still struggles when it comes to women asserting rights as individuals independent of their kinship ties with men as evidenced by their struggle to institute full sexual and reproductive rights, or their right to pass on citizenship to their children independent of the father, or their right to choose and live freely with partners independent of gender or national identities. How do women’s rights activists like Sharmila – herself a single mother – organise in a context that is deeply fearful of women asserting rights over their bodies and the freedom of choice? What are the avenues that are available to them in the national context – avenues that are facilitated but perhaps also circumscribed by international contexts of foreign aid and the global feminist movement? Sharmila will address some of these issues in a conversation about her experiences of activism and of running a women’s rights organisation in Nepal.

The seminar is a joint Gender and Sexualities Forum and GHRN event.  There is no need to register and everyone is welcome.

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First published: 10 March 2017